Daily Oil Blog

                                            
Stockmarket guru Warren buffet proclaimed that the worst is over for the Wall street crisis.The Berkshire CEO cited that the global credit crunch has eased for bankers and FED may have saved the day by bailing Bear Stearns.

The subprime crisis will probably hit more Americans with personal mortgages and nasty ordeal will be inevitable but in April many Americans including the rest of the world will be glad that the Omaha investor positive analysis may calm the US markets and even bring a stablizing force in the investment communities worldwide.

The ongoing housing crisis is a tale about greed to overextending of credit to borrowers who lack the means to make the payments of the housing loans.In the end, borrowers must pay back to the banks and the high default rate display the weakness of the market that brought forth the real estate foreclosures that spillover worldwide.

There’s no free lunch in free market economics, ultimately someone got to pay and it’s no joke even in April when the fools are borrowers who overstretch themselves.

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After getting to know your land surroundings better and design your strawbale house .
One need to where the bales will come from.So while designing your house, secure your bale source as to know roughly the size.Don’t settle for second best, look around in your area for the best source of bales available.

Bale inspection

Go through the color of the bales as they tell you the history of the bales.Have they been outdoors and have proper ventilation?Surface mould is a tell tale sign that the bales had been through rain or improperly stored.If you hit the straws and white dust bounced off,they may have plenty of interior mould which you cannot see on the surface.If the smell is musty, then the mould must be in there.Please do not use the bales if it’s in a bad condition to save a few bucks.

Bale density

Density factor is important and if one living in the west, one should be aware of this is part of the building code.This requirement is important as you need to guarantee the building inspector the quality of your bales.

Moisture level

The moisture content is important when choosing your bales.A bale which reached 20 %
is something that mould growth and decay sinks in and grow.It’s difficult to do anything to reverse that trend once that level is reached ,getting accurate readings of the bale is important so check them out during neutral time of the day and not early in the morning.
Use your senses to source out quality bales and remember the nearer they are near your site location, the better as it will be of minimal impact on the environment.

Have fun choosing your strawbales!

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I know that many people would like to give a shot at designing their strawbale house after listing the benefits yesterday.However, one must be aware of a few considerations before rushing off their own designs.

Site visit

Do a comprehensive site inspection to understand the land you’re going to build your house on.Observe the rainfall and the direction which the sun rays falls on.Don’t be impatient and design a house that’s not energy efficient.Nature plays an important part.

Water is Life

Watching the waterflow on your site is important, knowing where the water will flow to when it rains helps in your design process of your property greatly.Placing your site near to a well is good if your land is not on city facilities.A septic system for your leach field have to be build and also situated at a safe distance from your well. An understanding of
the topography of your site will be handy.

Solar thy home

Knowing the sun movement is important to house efficiency.Harnessing the power of the sun is really important if you want to live off the grid.This provides all your electrical and heating needs.Size of roof overhangs also come into consideration too .

This all comes down to understanding one’s motherland and the natural forces Man has little control over despite our arrays of technology.Only by undertstanding the geography where we choose to build our straw house can we truly make them our homes.

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Many of you may be thinking of building self sufficicient homes off the grid.Things like price factor and energy sources will be top priorities, and as promised last week.I will try to share the benefits of some of this housing types. The first type will be strawbale housing.

Energy Efficiency 

Strawbale housing has the high energy efficiency as construction materials.This is clearly
an advantage when there’s higher costs of cooling and heating.This provides good insulation and 75% energy savings compared to brick & mortar housing is no joke.

Noise Suppression 

For homeowners who like tranquility, strawbale houses is quiet ,I’m not kidding.Thick walls remove much of the sound outside and if you’re living near the beach and want to hear the sea wave , just open a window in that direction.Design of the homes must be done with sound insulation  in mind.

Environmental Factor 

For those greenies, you will be helping to use the straws instead of burning them.
Why not build a healthier house with straws instead of polluting the air ?This could beckon a trend to reduce a sick house syndrome so common in our industrialised world.
By using natural materials like straws, we will be doing our part.

Ease of building

Homeowners will get a sense of satisfaction building their own strawbale house.The difficult part is electrical installation and plumbling which can be subcontract to qualified  people.With the right teacher, a whole family and friends can get together to build one and not only is this a fun proccess, it save one much labour costs too.The end product is really home sweet home as you DIY with yourtime and efforts:)

All the above are a few benefits using strawbale and why one should not dismiss this as a  good construction model for your homes.

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There’s been a lot of talk about housing that’s eco friendly and that’s pretty important subject I’ll be touching on next week.Stone housing, strawbale housing and adobe are some of the more popular choices of DIY homers nowadays.

That’s the cost factor, energy considerations whether the house geographical location is suitable for solar or wind, hydroelectric source.The way things are going is simplification,men has complicated the housing process ever since the advent of farming practices.

The decline of fossil oil will be the slow demise of suburbia and skyscraper types of housing, both are a dent into our human soul the past century with isolation and pride.
Stay tuned .

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